Lost and Found

Last night we feared the worst. Our precious Buff Cochin hen, Goldie, aka, Big Yellow was gone. She was nowhere to be found. My eldest thought maybe a hawk got her. I started thinking maybe a chicken snatcher chicken-napped her; with all the egg problems nowadays, who wouldn't want to steal a fresh bird to lay them some fresh eggs?! (Hey, it could happen!) But really, we were worried. We called, we yelled, we hiked around the yard, the front, the back, all the play areas. No bok boks in response. She was never to be seen again. I was sad and angry at myself for letting them out of their hen house and chicken run to play in the yard.

This morning, as I lay asleep in bed, I heard the loudest of our hens, Goldie! Could it be? Nah...I was dreaming. I actually got up and went to the window to see if she was out there looking inside the hen yard asking her friends to let her in. No such luck. Sadness embraced me again and I returned to bed. A little later, I continued my morning routine, getting the girls ready for the day. During breakfast I could hear the hens outside, talking about another chicken (don't ask me how I know this). Then I heard it.  Goldie and her clucking! The beautiful sound came from another part of the yard! I ran out and looked from the deck down toward the goat pen. She was actually in the goat run! She was alive and I could not believe my eyes. She must have wandered in there yesterday and been in their goat house all afternoon and evening. My guess is she wanted to take a vacation or get a fresh perspective in life. She realized she has it pretty darn good. We are all so glad that our Big Yellow is back. Bok Bok!

Legacy Maple

This weekend we planted a new tree. It's a Legacy Maple tree. Very excited about it. Hope it grows up to be big and strong. Grow little tree, grow!

Nickels and Dimes

So yesterday I was desperate to get out and spend some money. You know the feeling. Just spend something. Anything. I also wanted some Dutch Bros. (For those of you who don't live up here - it's like a drive through Starbucks with drinks that are 10 times better). But alas, my wallet was empty. What to do...what to do....Well, I dragged every jar, cup and box full of loose change upstairs and some of it was already wrapped and ready to go. I called the bank, - they still don't have a change machine like Coinstar! If you want to turn in your change for cash, you have to wrap it yourself. So I sat at the kitchen table and wrapped more quarters and dimes. It was fun teaching Ainsley again how to distinguish between the nickels and dimes. She sorted out the pennies for me.

Over $120 later we sipped our Dutch Bros and breezed through Target with the wind in our sails! Ainsley now has a new pink jacket for school, an adorable denim dress and two pairs of new shoes. The consignment store also had some distressed GAP jeans, some black pants and another blouse all in her size. She raked it in and all by rolling some loose, forgotten change into cash yesterday!

The Help

I've been thoroughly enjoying a great book. It's called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi,  the story weaves together the lives of local women and their hired help aka black maids. This book explores not only race relations at that time between the women and their help, but friendships, love, child rearing and much more with humor and an impeccable writing style. There are also twists in this book that make it a real page turner - with characters that seem as real as you and I.